1y ago

What is spying?

Sorry to post my shitty neofetch to this community

229 comments

Google "Only spy the web" is highly inaccurate...they are everywhere. In every website, in your android phone, in your YouTube, in your Google drive, in your email, in your Google maps...
Anyways... I will calm down now. :)
- In your car, your TV, your network, your dns.....
  Everywhere.
  
  They are even part of paying for the massive underwater cables between continents that all internet traffic runs through.
  They took everything over.
  It's the most extensive surveillance network in the world.
- It's cute, people think their android os isn't collecting an embarrassing amount of data. Even if you turn everything off but cellular, it still phones home with cellular tower triangulation, app usage, call history, general web activity, weather the phone thinks your walking driving or riding a Bike, device diagnostics, etc.
  
  Yes but we do what we can.
  
  I wish there was a paid google of no spying... I mean what does google one get me, but the ability for google to spy on more or my data?
- in your android phone
  And if you try to revoke their spying access on a rooted stock device, they force a reboot ☹️
  
  Hence GrapheneOS sandboxing the Play Store. It is ironic that Google is the only phone manufacturer that allows for installing a different OS. But I suppose the fact that GrapheneOS has pushed security updates that have made it into stock Android and the fact that most users won't bother installing an alternative OS on their pixel phones is why they allow such shenanigans.
- I use alternative for all google services.
  YouTube - piped.video
  Google drive - Mega Drive or Anonfile
  G-Mail - Proton
  Google Map - OSM (Open Street Map)
  
  I think you meant:
  Google maps - OSM
  and
  Google Search Engine - almost a thing else (duckduckgo)
- It would be fun if some government required companies that off free services to disclose how they make money and allow each user to see their particular value. This might help open some eyes....
  
  open their eyes to what? the fact it costs money to run a service? its either some data mining or everything costing a helluva lot more. and im sure youd complain about prices too.
  
  How much money do you think a single user is worth? I can't imagine it's anything valuable
- And not just google stuff, the big companies are for sure in exchange so if you do something on instagram, google will know it for sure.
  Therefor im trying to step away from google, here are my alternatives to the google services:
  Google drive -> Nextcloud Gmail -> Tutanota Youtube -> (im still using this) Maps -> Open Street Map Authenticator -> Aegis Chrome -> Librewolf/Firefox Passwords -> Bitwarden
  (All of these alternatives are just my own preferences and what I daily use)
  
  For youtube, there's libre frontends like newpipe and piped (but of course you are still using youtube)
- Sure, but all of those, except the phone (and TV mentioned in another comment), are part of the web.
- started uploading pics to maps as a 'guide' back in 2000s. G has sent me a few trinkets over the years(coveted lego phone stand). a level 8 guide, w/e that means. millions of pic views. what do I care. it's a hobby. Moved a home phone line to Voice. Get email transcript of any voice mails. set it to do not disturb. phone never rings. voicemail or nothing. I use them for free. They use me. Or think they do

Google spy through android as well
- And chromeos
  
  Mmm, chromeos 🤤
- I use lineageOS because of this
  
  I'll be switching to Lineage soon...
  Google forced my manufacturer (Fairphone) to effectively 'disable' the fingerprint scanner from android 13 onwards for the FP3. Our Lineage fork reverted that Google mandated change thankfully
  
  Me too I use Lineage for microg and I haven't had any compatibility issues
  
  or if your device has a maintainer willing: EvolutionX. im surprised how painless of an experience this custom rom is. and it's got no bullshit stuff in it either. fucking crazy. they even got ota support... it's like oem rom experience, only, there's no third party spyware installed(excluding GApps. but even google's telemetry can be highly restricted when we install AFWall+ and use NextDns+Adaway along with it). it's been years(close to a decade actually) since I've used an oem rom on my personal phone, it's just that good
- Degoogled my Tab.

Both Android and ChromeOS are Linux, and Google's spying there...
- We should all be thankful that ChromeOS is flaming hot garbage that no one should be using on UX alone.
- This is one of the reasons why I think something like “Freedesktop Platform” is a more appropriate term than “Linux”.
- Do we really need to bring back "GNU/Linux" for the pedants?
  
  It's funny how Linux is only Linux if it benefits Linux nerds but the moment someone points out that Android, Chrome, Steam Deck, anything with telemetry and Linux has telemetry all of a sudden it's not "really Linux" anymore.
  It really is Schrodinger's OS.
- Your logical inference is wrong.

Stalking. Spying sounds like a kids game or movie. This isn't observing. This isn't passive. It is actively exploiting. It is predatory, targeted, manipulative, with intent. It is stalking.
- You're right and I'm making the switch to using this word while removed about their stalking.

Apple fanboys will lose their shit if they see this meme. I sometimes dont understand these fanboys like apple doesn't pay them nor does they credit these idiots for word of mouth free marketing instead these idiots pay top $ to buy their product and act like them invented it. Stupid mofos!!
- yeah i will never understand company fanboys they cheer for people that fuck them over it's like putting your hand in acid and saying it's good for you
- Well it's more the fact that they have payed top $ so it can't be a flawed product. That's most likely why some apple users react in that fashion.
  
  The new Mac Pro would like a word with you LOL
  
  That's so true. You make a good point.

Microsoft: Gets slapped with antitrust lawsuits for including Internet Exploder with Windows.
Microsoft: Hold my beer.
- I'll hold it. To pour it over their head. lol Edge the assimilated Chrome. most of their desktop apps open links in Edge instead of the default browser. I installed 'no script' on Edge and links open to a blank tab on MSN. copy links to my prefered browser. would be on linux except for one game I like
  
  I use Opensuse for everything bar gaming. I dual boot to Win10 for any games I want to play. This setup works pretty well for me.

Linux*
*Except Ubuntu
- Oh honey

I think it is funny that this community thinks it knows everything about privacy and security and every time I see a post like this it becomes apparent that the main of this community doesn't.
I like the Fediverse but it is a security and privacy nightmare.
- It would be, if users were convinced it is anything other than a public place.
- Its basically a giant townhall. Anything you say is public.
- I know what you mean. It suck but whatever it's better than giving data to a big company.
  
  I mean, in this way we are basically giving data to every big company, aren't we?

If you're forced to use Windows for some things, use Windows 10 LTSC. If you can't buy it (because Microsoft refuses to let consumers buy a non-spyware version of their OS) then sail the high seas for it. It takes the telemetry out and you'll have full control over the OS, can more easily remove Edge and can set your group policy and other stuff to completely block telemetry to your taste.
- https://ameliorated.io/ is also a handy project for those that don't want to tinker around with group policies and other tooling. I have been using AtlasOS on my gaming machine for a few months now and the experience and performance has been splendid.
- I keep 11 for some machine specific settings. It is on a separate drive from Linux and it exists in a post internet age of behind a router that will never give it access to anything. If I need something for it, Linux will placed those files on a separate drive to manually carry them over to little double middle finger OS. Maybe it can have internet one day when it grows up and vomits all its source code in a bankruptcy.... Assuming it is not to late to abort this little monster toddler.
- Yo really? Sounds good, gonna install that for my VR machine.

Facebook: you guys hide it?

Google: Laughing in Android.
- Google: Laughing in Chrome, scanning your entire file system
  Google: Laughing in bloody web DRM
  
  Oh no my previous private keys 😱
- The amount of telemetry that comes with GMS is insane.

linux is not inherently immune ya'll
- Y'all* :)

All you can really do is make the spying as difficult as possible. That's really all we can do 🤷🏿‍♂️🤷🏿‍♂️
- True. And unfortunately certain privacy measures can make it easier to digitally fingerprint you as a user. Also my mind is still blown since I learned about canvas fingerprinting. EFF.org describes it as follows:
  Canvas fingerprinting is invisible to the user. A tracker can create a “canvas” in your browser, and generate a complicated collage of shapes, colors, and text using JavaScript. Then, with the resulting collage, the tracker extracts data about exactly how each pixel on the canvas is rendered. Many variables will affect the final result. These include your operating system, graphics card, firmware version, graphics driver version, and installed fonts.
  These settings are different from one computer to the next. But they tend to be consistent enough on a single machine to clearly identify a user.

Pretty sure Google also spies through the OS.
- It depends of the OS. The vast majority of Android devices " yes". But there are few exceptions like GrapheneOS for example, where Google code was almost completely purged from the system except from the firmware level (unfortunately), for basic reasons.

somebody never reads the logs

the reason they put so many cameras on phones is not for selfies
- I always love that scene in Batman where he's hacked everyone's phone to see all their cameras.
  It looks like everyone in the world is standing around everywhere pointing their phone cameras in the most convenient directions to give a great view of streets, rooms and hallways everywhere.
  In real life, if you tuned into people's cameras right now, fifty percent would be the inside of pockets, purses or clothing. A quarter would be pointed at blank walls, ceilings, floors or the sky. And the rest would be terribly close close-ups of people faces or the shower/bathroom/sink.
  
  If I remember correctly, it wasn't the cameras, it was the microphones. It was able to recreate 3d scenes with some kind of sonar algorithm (probably by combining the microphones from multiple people in the same room?) (I actually really liked Batman using sonar). 3d images from microphones still sounds farfetched but, may actually be possible soon
  
  I mean, Batman's software could probably filter out that stuff and show only the ones that are actually useful.
- It's for food and cats photos too
- Y'all worried about cameras when there's a microphone too. IMO that's a way more intrusive than spying on camera.
- Guess it's a good thing my case has a slider that blocks the camera. They can tell where but not what. Though with mic they can probably tell what most of the time too for me, yay for spying on me watching cartoons and playing video games. Now that I typed it I realized how little had changed in 30 years, thankfully there's new of both to enjoy.

CalyxOS for your pixel phone. Degoogle that baby.
- Calyx isn't as secure as GrapheneOS
  
  It's a lot easier to install and more secure than not having anything. Good option for people who don't have a lot of skill in this area.
  
  Is Graphene degoogled from the start? I get all my apps from F-Droid anyway, so is it good?

Very Accurate

I have a Mac 💀

I'm sure not everyone will agree, but honestly, I kind of stopped caring too much. I've been using Instagram, Google, Android, Apple, and many other service providers for years and none seems to know a lot about me based on the stuff I see being advertised to me.
None of them seem to have figured out what languages I speak (I get a lot of language courses for English and German, but I'm native in both), what my education level is (I get a lot of 'study your bachelor or master here or there or online' despite having two master's degrees), where I really live (lots of British stuff always, but I live out of Europe), or what my hobbies are (lots of mobile games that I wouldn't touch with a stick).
Yeah, it seems they get the basics (I'm male, below 35, I am interested in educational stuff), but that could be anyone... And if I can use their services for tree for them to put me in a category with some 10M others, I'm kinda okay
- (I know it's a late response but I only saw this post now and wanted to response to your particular comment) It was also the case for me because I usually didn't consume stuff from my age or from my native language but I still stopped using their services for the most part and deactivated any kind of telemetry from them for the remaining stuff I still use because despite all of that, I still don't want to support their business model or the companies themselves, as well as their constant push to consumerism through ads drowning. So privacy isn't the only reason to stop letting them listen to you I think.
  
  Question is, what business model would you support?
  Ads are the thing that pay for a lot of services most people use in daily lives. Imagine you needed a paid subscription for your email, your search engine, browser, social media account(s)...
  Lemmy is fun and all, but eventually it will need to expand and pay for server costs and so on. Yes, perhaps it will be carried by enthusiastic community members, but that's just a higher paid subscription for a few rather than many.
  I agree fully with you that the level of commercialisation is beyond crazy by now, and many developments do not have the user in mind. But that's not on the business model itself, but the companies' decisions.

Google : "i only spy through the web"
Me :

yet an another dead repost.

Imagine thinking OSS doesn't spy on you 🤣
- reads source code
  Oh look I know exactly what it does and what libraries it uses, I don't have to hope and pray like a closed source cuck.
  Thanks for showing everyone how amazingly stupid you are.
  
  Implying that all Linux users have read the source code of the distro they're running (assuming the majority is able to).
  
  Yeah... Except if the compiler is backdoored. Ken Thompson explained this back in the day. If the compiler is compromised, there ultimately isn't a way to see if there's something malicious going on. Brodie Robertson does a good job explaining this.
  https://yewtu.be/watch?v=sOeuYuvOcl0
  
  When was the last time you read any source code for any software you use on a daily basis?
  Do you read and understand the source code for every piece of software you use?
  No?
  Then STFU.
  
  Lolololol 👌
  Software getting pegged with cves left and right because of hundreds of source libraries is definitely not a thing.
  Unless you are one of the few people writing go routines for massive companies, or working on hardware and low level hardware where you have low resources where scaling can mean millions you are writing code using hundreds of dependencies and libraries.
  Very very few people need to code like that.
- User name checks out.
  
  I'm sure I had no idea when I picked it out. None.

229 comments